If you took a quarter-century worth of His Excellencies the African
leader and tossed them in a blender, you would come up with a Big Man who
looks like this....

His photograph hangs in every office in his realm. His ministers
wear gold pins with tiny photographs of Him on the lapels of their tailored
pin-stripe suits... He insists on being called doctor or conqueror
or teacher or the big elephant.... His every pronouncement
is reported on the front page... He shuffles ministers without warning,
paralyzing policy decisions as he undercuts pretenders to his throne....
He bans all political parties except the one he controls. He rigs elections.
He emasculates the courts. He cows the press. He stifles academia. He goes
to church.

His off-the-cuff remarks have the power of law.... He blesses
his home region with highways, schools, hospitals, housing projects, irrigation
schemes, and a presidential mansion. He packs the civil service with his
tribesman... He questions the patriotism of the few he cannot buy, accusing
them of corruption or charging them with serving foreign masters....
He uses the resources of the state to feed a cult of personality that defines
him as incorruptible, all-knowing, physically strong, courageous in battle,
sexually potent, and kind to children. His cult equates his personal well-being
with the well-being of the state. His rule has one overriding goal: to
perpetuate his reign as Big Man.

After reading the above quote, you'll probably be surprised to learn
that Togo does not appear once in the book's index! Blaine Harden's
book has chapters on Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Zaire, Sudan, Kenya, and Zambia.
But as the quote indicates, the observations he makes go beyond the borders
of those nations.

Blaine Harden was the Washington Post bureau chief in
sub-Saharan Africa from 1985 to 1989. (This book is copyrighted 1990.) This
book is proof that he is a superb reporter. At times it reads like an adventure
story, while at other times he makes astute observations of African politics
and culture.

The book starts with a description of a trip Harden took on the Major
Mudimbi, one of the boats carrying passengers up and down the Congo
river. Jammed with passengers, filthy, and unsafe, the boat is also a bustling
floating market that many depend on for their livelihood. Harden intersperses
descriptions of his trip with comments on Zairian politics and corruption,
if there is a distinction between the two.

Other chapters describe family life in Ghana, rural life in the Sudan,
and the vitality and squalor of Nigeria, which he -- at least when he wrote
the book -- considered Africa's black hope. One of his most
interesting chapters is on the way a Norwegian aid project wrecked havoc
on the way of life of the Turkana of Kenya.

I can't think of a better non-fiction book on Africa that I've ever read
than this one. It is both entertaining and insightful, frightening and hopeful.
I rate this book **** (out of ****).